BRAZEN PARTISANSHIP OF THE RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, AND THE TACIT COMPLICITY OF THE
INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC)
A CALL FOR RESTRAINT TO URGENTLY FORESTALL LOOMING INSECURITY.
PREAMBLE
1.1 THE AFRICAN ACTION CONGRESS (AAC) is one of the political parties duly registered by INEC which participated in the 2019 General Elections. As the duly nominated Governorship Candidate of my Party AAC, I, Engineer Biomakpo Awara participated in the March 9, 2019 election conducted by INEC in Rivers State. I was also privileged that the All Progressives Congress (APC) Rivers State (who unfortunately could not field any candidate during the election due to intra party conflicts and litigations) supported my Deputy and I as the Candidates adopted by the APC for the Gubernatorial elections in Rivers State.
1.2 I am constrained to, on behalf of my Party AAC and all good people of Rivers State, raise this Petition against Mr Obo Effanga, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Rivers State who discharged his responsibilities during the 2019 Gubernatorial Elections in a biased, partisan unfair and unacceptable manner.
1.3 We are concerned that the REC was grossly incompetent in the discharge of his responsibilities such that the looming electoral crisis unfolding in Rivers State may most likely result in a security crisis and breakdown of law and order.
2.O PARTICULARS OF BIAS AND MISCONDUCT BY REC, RIVERS STATE AND THE SEEMING ACTS OF COMPLICITY BY THE CHAIRMAN OF INEC.
The REC altered the approved list of Returning Officers (RO) and Collation Officers (CO) for the Gubernatorial Election by including names of card-carrying members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to serve as RO’s and CO’s in the various LGA’s in the State during the Gubernatorial elections. Please see the altered INEC list of RO’s and CO’s marked as ANNEXURE A.
These last minute inclusions, made surreptitiously by Obo Effanga on the eve of the March 9, 2019 elections was calculated to give undue advantage to the Governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike and PDP. It is possible that there may be more PDP persons unknown to us, but some of these identified PDP officers are :-
a) Mr. Ledornu Gbenekanu Mpigi the RO for Khana LGA who is a brother to Barry Mpigi the PDP Senator-Elect for Rivers South-East Senatorial Zone,
b) Mr. Prince Mmom the RO for Tai LGA,
c) Professor Joyce Akaninwor the RO for Ahoada-West LGA,
d) Mr. Bright Chizobam Azuonwu the RO for Bonny LGA, who incidentally contested under the platform of the PDP in the Rivers South-East Senatorial Primaries in 2018, and
e) Mr. Peter Medee the RO for Emohua LGA who is a widely known chieftain of the PDP.
2.3 This brazen infraction of the provision of Section 29 of the Electoral Act, was immediately brought to the attention of INEC Head Quarters and the Rivers State office. Photographs of the afore listed persons wearing apparel of PDP were also forwarded to INEC and are marked as ANNEXURES B,C,D, E and, F. Much as we commend INEC for delisting the four officers, and assuring us that they will be recused from the electoral process, we must place on record that this belated action by INEC is inconsequential because it was taken after these officers have fully participated in the electoral process, and primarily because we had made known to the public their clandestine operations. The partisan affiliations of these INEC officers has clearly and incontrovertibly tainted and compromised the electoral process. Vanguard Newspaper Report with the link on the subject is marked as ANNEXURE G
It is important to place on record that another clear evidence of incompetence and bias is the failure of the REC to properly and effectively conclude the PHALGA Constituency 3 Bye elections which
he conducted in Rivers State in August 2018. The REC in a similar manner suspended that election at the collation stage when it was apparent that the APC candidate was in the lead and will defeat the PDP candidate. INEC since the suspension of the electoral process in August 2018 has up to date taken no further steps to conclude the process thereby leaving the seat vacant. In the light of subsequent unfolding events as highlighted below I have no doubt that during the collation of the 2019 Gubernatorial elections the REC adopted the same strategy of suspending the electoral process immediately he realized that a substantial number of the collated results were in my favor.
2.5 We are reliable informed that the REC and several Heads of Department at INEC Rivers State, are very close to the Governor of Rivers State, they have over the last 3 years been induced with substantial cash and gifts, including houses and property, such that they are heavily compromised and recklessly divulge sensitive information and do the bidding of PDP.
Furthermore, I must state that we are concerned about the integrity of the process in Rivers State. It will be recalled that the Chairman of INEC Prof Mahmood Yakubu served as the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) from 2007 to 2012. Governor Wike on the other hand was the Honorable Minister of State for Education from August 2011 to May 2015. During this period TETFUND was one of the agencies in the Ministry of Education directly under Governor Wike. It is well known that the Chairman and Governor Wike worked closely during this period, and a cursory search on activities during the period is revealing. It is highly probable that the Chairman deliberately overlooks or is in complicity with the REC who took biased and partisan decisions during the conduct of elections in Rivers State.
The facts clearly also show that the exercise of arbitrary powers of suspension of the elections in circumstances where voting had been completed and results were being collated is not only ultra vires the powers of INEC, but it is apparent from the concerns raised hereunder that such suspension was calculated to put Governor Wike and his party PDP at an advantage as the process was easily compromised and manipulated during such interregnum.
CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS AND THE ABRUPT SUSPENSION
3.1 The March 9, 2019 Gubernatorial elections was free and fair and was
conducted safely and peacefully in Rivers State, except in Abua Odual LGA where INEC cancelled the election due to security breaches. Immediately after voting was completed, collation of results at the Unit, Ward, and LGA levels commenced in all the other 22 LGA’s.
3.2 Indigenes and residents of Rivers State were therefore shocked by the Press Release from the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye Esq in the evening of Sunday March 10, 2019 announcing the suspension of Electoral Processes in Rivers State on the grounds “that there has been widespread disruption of elections conducted on the 9th day of March 2019 in Rivers State”. Please see the Press Release marked as ANNEXURE H.
As at the time of the suspension of the electoral processes the results of 7 (seven) LGA’s had been declared and to the glory of Almighty God I, Engr. Biokpomabo Awara, the candidate of AAC was in a clear lead as was evident from results collated and duly declared in 7 (seven) LGA’s by authorized INEC Electoral Officers (EO’s) and RO’s. The results of 7 other LGA’s had also been collated but had not yet been announced as at the time of the suspension of the electoral process. Please see attached our summary of the said results which is marked as ANNEXURE I.
RELEVANT SUPERVENING FACTS
4.1 The Press Release of 10th March informed the public that INEC had “established a Fact-Finding Committee (F-F Committee) to assess the situation and report back within 48 hours”. The F-F Committee visited Port Harcourt from 11th-13th March 2019. I visited the Rivers INEC Office on each of the 3 days the Committee sat, in the hope that I could meet with the F-F Committee to state our position, but on each occasion I was informed by officials of INEC that I was not invited and as such I could not have access to the Committee. To my chagrin, I was reliably informed that the F-F Committee met severally with the candidate of the PDP Governor Wike together with other officials of PDP both in Port Harcourt and in Abuja.
The Head Quarters of 6 Division, Nigerian Army, made a Press Release on 18th March 2019 signed by the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col Aminu Iliyasu which showed that the F-F Committee met
with representatives of 6 Division on 12th March 2019. The Army representatives informed the Committee that the 6 Division troops detailed at the outer perimeter of the Obio/Akpor LGA Collation Centre were brazenly attacked by Governor Wike’s security aides and armed thugs who stormed the collation centre with the Governor in a convoy of more than 50 vehicles at about 10.30pm on the 10th of March while collation was ongoing. From the Press Release of 6 Division, the security aides of Governor Nyesom Wike shot and severely wounded Captain Adams Salami, while Corporal Adeoshun Adebayo was matcheted by Governor Wike’s armed thugs; both officers are currently hospitalized. They also informed the Committee that the Governor and his aides abducted electoral officials from the Collation Centre and also carted away electoral materials to an unknown destination. The said Army Press Release is marked as ANNEXURE J.
.
The Report of the F-F Committee was not made public, however on 15th March 2019, Festus Okoye of INEC made another Press Release in which INEC announced that it had considered the Report of the F-F Committee and established :-
That the Governorship and State Assembly Elections took place in most of the polling units and that results were announced.
That the results from 17 LGA’s out of the 23 LGA’s are available and are in the Commission’s custody.
That the Declarations and Results for 21 State Constituencies out of 32 were made prior to the suspension.
The Press Release of 15th March 2019 is marked as ANNEXURE K.
It is surprising and disturbing that the clear breaches of INEC Laws and guidelines by the Governor of Rivers State whose aides shot and wounded Military officers was not in any way addressed nor deprecated, in INEC Press Release of 15th March 2019. Rather INEC merely “expressed its displeasure with the role played by some soldiers and armed gangs in Rivers State in disrupting the collation process and attempting to subvert the will of the people”.
ISSUES OF GRAVE CONCERN
5.1 Several questions readily come to mind, which require some cogent explanations from INEC :-
How could elections be suspended on 10th of March 2019 because INEC has determined that there has been widespread disruption of elections conducted in Rivers State, as violence
occurred in a substantial number of polling units and collation centres?
Precisely 5 days later on 15th March 2019, INEC makes a volte-face and finds that the Governorship and State Assembly elections took place in most of the polling units and results were announced.
Who held INEC officials hostage on 9th&10th March 2019? When were they released? When were the destroyed electoral materials retrieved or replaced? What is the guarantee that such Rivers INEC officials were not compromised? How did Rivers INEC officials compile the unit, ward and LGA results after the suspension of the electoral processes in the absence of the various agents of the parties since my Party agents were not contacted? Which are the 17 LGA’s mentioned by INEC? Why is it that it is Governor Wike and PDP that have information about the 17 LGA’s and have tabulated them on social media? When will INEC formally release information on the 17 LGA’s? Which are the outstanding 6 LGA’s?
We have carefully considered the improper conduct on the part of the REC and other officials of INEC Rivers State, the abrupt suspension of the electoral processes, the supervening events since after the suspension, the opaque and obviously biased manner in which Rivers INEC has conducted its affairs since after the suspension, the unholy alliance between Rivers INEC and Governor Nyesom Wike and officials and agents of PDP, and the controversial findings of the INEC F-F Committee which cannot be supported by any facts and evidence.
We have come to the logical conclusion that Rivers INEC is biased, has acted in bad faith, has been compromised and can no longer be trusted by the political parties and Rivers people that it can act as independent, credible and unbiased umpire.
SECURITY OVERVIEW
6.1 Elections in Rivers State cannot be considered without an overview of the present security situation in the State. It is common knowledge that citizens and residents of Rivers State have for several years never really participated fully in any election process owing to incidents of massive violence and armed clashes by rival gangs seeking to hijack & manipulate the elections. Most times, incessant shootings, and bombings occur days before the elections, which leaves the electorate traumatized, and psychologically affected, resulting in voter apathy and disenfranchisement of millions of our people.
We remember with trepidation the death of hundreds of our people before, during and after the 2015 Elections, the Supplementary Elections of December 2015, the Bye Elections of February 2016, and most recently the Bye Election held in August 2018. We recall the pogrom that occurred in Ogba \Egbema\Ndoni LGA where Chief Adube, his wife and children were brutally murdered. His only surviving son who was injured during the attack on his family home is today confined to a wheel chair. I was informed that a former member of the Rivers State House of Assembly Hon. Monday Eleanya who had decamped from PDP to APC was brutally murdered in a mafia like kind of killing. One Mr. Franklin Obi, who was a Ward Chairman of APC in the LGA was beheaded alongside his wife and eldest son less than a day after criticizing Hon Felix Obuah the State Chairman of PDP. The total number of people killed in only that LGA between 2014 and 2017 was well over 2,000 and the full particulars of this information was made available to the National Human Rights Commission. People in this LGA only had a respite, from this spate of senseless killings after gunmen opened fire on innocent church members returning from an early morning service thereby killing well over 25 of them.
This horrific incident led to the intervention of the Federal Security agencies who finally decimated the dreaded Don Wany, a known ally to Governor Wike and his criminal empire operating in the area. Other LGA’s where incidents of harassment, abduction and killings occurred during and after the 2015 elections include Abua Odual where 10 persons were killed, Ahoada East recorded 5 deaths, in Akuku-Toru Mr. Ipalibo Black-Duke was killed, Asari-Toru 4 deaths, Eleme 1 death, Etche 4 persons died, Ikwerre 3 persons were murdered, Dr Vincent Eeebee was killed in Yeghe Gokana, LGA, whilst in Okrika 5 persons were killed, in Opobo/Nkoro 1 person was murdered, whilst in Port Harcourt 9 persons died as a result of politically motivated cult related activities and gang wars.
It was for this reason that Rivers State was termed “RIVERS OF BLOOD” and rightly classified as a flash point area, and the Federal Government deployed adequate Military and police presence during the 2019 General Elections. Notwithstanding the efforts of the security Agencies there were several incidents of assault, and bodily harm in some LGA’s as armed cultists, political thugs and militants had been engaged by unscrupulous politicians to terrorize innocent people and disrupt the elections. Particularly targeted during the 2019 Presidential
elections were APC members leading to the deaths of Pastor Mowan Etete Owoh, a former Council Chairman, his brother Elder Andrew Owoh and Mr. Ignatius Bara a State Ex-Officio member of APC who were all brutally murdered in Asarama. Three policemen and a soldier were also killed in Andoni LGA. An Adhoc staff of Rivers INEC, Miss Ibisaki Amachree also died during the exercise in Asari Toru LGA. In Abonnema, Akuku Toru LGA, an Army Lieutenant Luka Ishaya Kurmi was murdered by armed gun men which led to the military engaging the militants and cultists. A week later these armed thugs gunned down three soldiers at their duty post in Abonnema. As a result of these brazen attacks the military had to beef up security in the Akuku Toru LGA which culminated in the peaceful and secure atmosphere that prevailed in the area and in other parts of Rivers State. Thankfully due to the gallant efforts of our security operatives incidents of deaths were minimal during the Gubernatorial elections as we regrettably recorded the deaths of Mr. Bright Esor of Ahoada East LGA a member of APC and Dr Ferry Gberigbe who died in Khana LGA, he was a PDP member.
We have watched with dismay the orchestrated campaign from INEC, the PDP and other mischievous persons aimed at disparaging the military and the police for their commendable efforts which ensured that Rivers State was relatively safe when compared to the incessant deaths and countless security breaches that occurred during previous elections.
It is clear that the intention is to drive the Military away and open the electoral process up for the militants and cult gangs for violent hijack and intimidation. Rivers INEC knows that given the present realities it is inconceivable that they can successfully conduct any elections in Rivers State without the full support of the Police, Military and other security agencies. A few incidents of overreach by security agencies were reported, it is important to acknowledge that such isolated cases should not be condoned.
7. OUR DEMANDS
In view of the ceaseless crisis arising from all elections conducted by the REC in Rivers State since 2015, we appeal that the activities of officials of Rivers INEC should be thoroughly investigated.
We demand for the Removal of the REC and all the Heads of Department at INEC Rivers State as it is clear that they and indeed most of the Rivers INEC Adhoc staff have all been compromised and cannot
be trusted to regulate and superintend the conduct of credible elections in Rivers State.
7.3 INEC should stop further collation and announcement of results of the Gubernatorial and House of Assembly Elections which they unilaterally and surreptitiously compiled after the suspension of the electoral processes as the outcome will undoubtedly be prejudicial and contentious.
The declaration of results in the 7 LGA’s namely Ikwerre, Ahoada West, Akuku Toru, Asari Toru, Oyigbo, Eleme, and Port Harcourt LGA’s which were collated and announced both at the unit, ward and LGA levels before the suspension of the electoral processes should be upheld by INEC, whilst all other collations should be declared null and void.
7.5 We are aware that direct attempts have been made to the RO’s of Asari Toru, Akuku Toru and Eleme LGA’s by unscrupulous politicians and corrupt INEC officials to prevail on them to alter the already collated and announced results in the 7 LGA’s namely Ikwerre, Ahoada West, Akuku Toru, Asari Toru, Oyigbo, Eleme, and Port Harcourt LGA’s. We salute the courage of these RO’s that have withstood these overtures. We emphasize that AAC will not accept any altered results already declared in the 7 afore stated LGA’s.
7.6 Fresh elections should be conducted in the 16 LGA’s where collations and announcements had not been concluded as at the time the election was suspended. We reiterate that any results declared after the suspension is completely compromised and totally unacceptable. They should not and cannot be declared or upheld as valid results.
7.7 Announcement of any results based on the compromised process will only lead to a breakdown of law and order which will aggravate the already tense security challenges in the State.
7.8 It is imperative that the Federal Government should continue to provide adequate protection and presence of security agencies in Rivers State including the use of the military during and after the elections as this will sanitize our State and ensure continued security and safety of lives and property.
7.9 We wish to stress that the relative peace in Rivers State is being threatened by the current electoral crisis in Rivers State which INEC must make concerted efforts to resolve same speedily, fairly and transparently, failing which INEC will be held responsible for any socio-political upheavals or political instability in Rivers State.
7.10 INEC is the only body constitutionally empowered to regulate and conduct Federal, State and Area Council Elections in Nigeria. Rivers INEC must therefore discharge its responsibility with all fairness, observing every tenet of equity, honesty, and fair play.
We expect nothing less from Rivers INEC.
ENGINEER BIOKPOMABO AWARA
Gubernatorial Candidate
African Action Congress.
c.c The President of Nigeria, His Excellency, Mohammadu Buhari GCFR
c.c The Inspector General of Police
c.c The Chief of Defence Staff
c.c The National Security Adviser
c.c The Director General, State Security Services
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